There is an ongoing trend in the health care industry towards increasing connectivity. This connectivity promises benefits for patients and medical professionals alike. Imagine routine healthcare tasks can be performed remotely without even having to step foot in a doctor's office. This level of connectivity opens a lot of doors, especially for those patients unable to travel easily.

But with the advent of ransomware, a chilling possibility has emerged: that criminals might one day be able to extort money from patients and health care facilities by threatening to disable life support systems. Researchers have discovered that the stationary transmitter used by a specific type of pacemaker suffers from a vulnerability which may have been exploitable remotely. The manufacturer released a software update to fix the flaw and the FDA released a note to inform patients and medical practitioners to take the required steps to update the software.

This is just one example. Read how research and hedge funds might influence the security of connected medical devices HERE.